Privacy Policy

Notice of Privacy Policy, Practices and Disclaimers

Privacy Policy Notice: Updated May 2018
Web: www.AcuAlt.com
Email: See Contact Us page

Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC
10869 E. Pleasant Place
Gold Canyon, AZ 85118-4629
Phone: 480-671-5178
Fax: 480-288-9653

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This notice describes how various information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can obtain access to this information. Please review it carefully

General Rule

We respect our legal obligation to keep health information private, which identifies you. The law obligates us to give you notice of our privacy practices.

Generally, we can only use your health information in our office or disclose it outside of our office, without your written permission, for purposes of treatment, payment, or healthcare operations. In most other situations, we will not use or disclose your health information unless you sign a written authorization form. In some limited situations, the law allows or requires us to disclose your health information without written authorization.

 

Disclosures of Health Information

We may disclose your health information outside of our office for treatment purposes, for example:

•     If we refer you to another doctor, practitioner, or clinic for additional services.
•     If we send an herbal prescription to another professional to be filled.
•     When we phone, or text, to let you know that your prescription is ready to be pickup up.

Sometimes we may ask for copies of your health information from another professional that you may have seen, or been treated by, before.

We may use your health information within our office, or disclose your health information outside our office for payment purposes. Some examples are:

•  Regarding health plans that you may belong to, or about other sources of payment for our services.
•  When we prepare bills to send to you, or your health care plan provider.
• When bills or claims for payment are mailed, faxed, or sent by computer to you, or your health care plan provider.

We use and disclose your health information for healthcare operations in a number of ways. Health care operations mean those administrative and managerial functions that we have to do in order to run our office. We may use or disclose your health information, for example, for financial or billing audits, for internal quality assurance, for the defense of legal matters, and to develop business plans.

Appointment Reminders

We may call, or text, to remind you of scheduled appointments. We may also call, or text, or e-mail to notify you of other treatments or services available at our office that might help you.

Acupuncture Alternatives Cancellation Policy

We understand that there are times when a patient must miss an appointment due to emergencies or obligations for work or family.

However, when a patient does not call to cancel an appointment they are preventing another patient from utilizing that time.

Appointments must be cancelled at least 24 hours in advance to avoid any cancellation fees.

Standard appointment fees will apply without appropriate notice.

 

Uses & Disclosure without Authorization

In some limited situations, the law allows or requires us to use or disclose your health information without your permission. Not all of these situations will apply to us; some may never happen at our office at all. Such uses or disclosures are:

•  A state or federal law that mandates certain health information is reported for a specific purpose.
•  Public health purposes, such as contagious disease reporting, investigation or surveillance; and notices to and from the Food and Drug Administration regarding drugs or medical devices.
•  Disclosures to governmental authorities about victims of suspected abuse, neglect or domestic violence.
•  Uses and disclosures for health oversight activities, such as for the licensing of doctors, audits by Medicare or Medicaid, or investigation of possible violations of healthcare laws.
•  Disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas, or orders of courts or administrative agencies.
•  Disclosures for law enforcement purposes, such as to provide information about someone who is, or is suspected to be a victim of a crime; to provide information about a crime at our office; or to report a crime that happened somewhere else.
•  Disclosure to a medical examiner to identify a dead person, or to determine the cause of death; or to funeral directors to aid in burial; or to organizations that handle organ or tissue donations.
•   Uses or disclosures for health related research.
•  Uses and disclosures to prevent a serious threat to health or safety.
•  Uses or disclosures for specialized government functions, such as for the protection of the president or high-ranking government officials; for lawful national intelligence activities; for military purposes; or for the evaluation and health of members of the Foreign Service.
•  Disclosures relating to workers’ compensations program.
•  A disclosure to business associates who perform healthcare operations for us and who agree to keep your health information private.

 

Other Disclosures

We will not make any other uses, or disclosures, of your health information unless you sign a written authorization form. You do not have to sign such a form. If you do sign one, you may revoke it at any time unless we have already acted in reliance upon it.

 

On-Line Policy

For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes only the consumer’s domain name, but not the e-mail address (where possible).

We collect only the domain name, but not the e-mail address of visitors to our Web page. We collect aggregate information about what pages consumers access or visit, but no information on consumers who browse our Web page. The information we collect is used to improve the content of our Web pages.

With respect to cookies: We use cookies to store visitors’ preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users’ access or visit.

We collect e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail, or through our website, or sign up for our e-newsletter. We never sell, share, or give away these e-mail addresses. Our office patient intake forms offer an ‘opt-in’ box for e-mail. Our office typically will e-mail no more than 1-4 e-mails per month. (Generally we send 1-2 e-mails per month, and depending on circumstances we might end up needing to send out an additional one if there is an issue such as traffic concerns for getting to the office, or we might send out a holiday greeting.) We use a reputable 3rd party mail service to handle e-mail newsletter mailings. Those e-mail services offer an easy and reliable way for anyone to unsubscribe/opt-out from future e-mails any time they wish.

With respect to Ad Servers: We do not partner with, or have special relationships with any ad server companies as of the date of this posting. This could change in the future and we will update as appropriate.

With respect to security: We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above addresses or phone number.

 

Your Rights Regarding Your Health Information

The law gives you many rights regarding your health information.

• You can ask us to restrict our uses and disclosures for purposes of treatment (except emergency treatment), payment or healthcare operations. We do not have to agree to do this, but if we agree we must honor the restrictions that you want. To ask for a restriction, send a written request to Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC at the address, fax, or email shown on this notice.
•  You can ask us to communicate with you in a confidential way, such as by phoning you at work rather than at home, by mailing health information to a different address, or by using email to your personal email address. We will accommodate these requests if they are reasonable, and if you pay us for any extra cost. If you want to ask for confidential communications, send a written request to Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC at the address, fax, or email shown on this notice.
• Our policy is not to communicate with individuals about any aspects of health information via any social media, therefore if you send us a request via social media, you will be asked to communicate with our office directly.
•  You can ask to see, or get photocopies of your health information. By law, there are few limited situations in which we can refuse to permit access or copying. Primarily, however, you will be able to review, or have a copy of your health information within 30 days of asking us. You may have to pay for photocopies in advance. If we deny your request, we will send you a written explanation, and instructions about how to get an impartial review of our denial if one is legally required. By law, we can have one 30-day extension of the time for us to give you access or photocopies if we sent you a written notice of the extension. If you want to review or get photocopies of your health information, send a written request to Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC at the address, fax, or email shown on this notice.
•  You can ask us to amend your health information if you think that it is incorrect or incomplete. If we agree, we will amend the information within 60 days from when you as us. We will send the corrected information to persons who we know got the wrong information, and others that you specify. If we do not agree, you can write a statement of your position, and we will include it with your health information along with any rebuttal statement that we may write. Once your statement of position and/or rebuttal is included in your health information, we will send it along whenever we make a permitted disclosure of your health information. By law, we can have one 30-day extension of time to consider a request for amendment if we notify you in writing of the extension. If you want to ask us to amend your health information, send a written request, including your reasons for the amendment, to Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC at the address, fax, or email address shown on this notice.
•  You can get a list of the disclosures that we have made of your health information within the past six years (or a shorter period if you want), except disclosures for the purpose of treatment, payment or health care operations, disclosures made in accordance with an authorization signed by you, and some other limited disclosures. You are entitled to one such list per year without charge. If you want more frequent lists, you will have to pay for them in advance. We will usually respond to your request within 60 days of receiving it, but by law we can have one 30-day extension of time if we notify you of the extension in writing. If you want a list, send a written request to Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC at the address, fax, or email shown on this notice.

Our Notice of Privacy Practices

By law, we must abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices until we choose to change it. We reserve the right to change this notice at any time in compliance with, and as allowed by law. If we change this notice, the new privacy practices will apply to your health information that we already have, as well as to such information that we may generate in the future. If we change our Notice of Privacy Practices, we will post the new notice in our office and have copies available.

Complaints

If you think that we have not properly respected the privacy of your health information, you are free to complain to us, or to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. We will not retaliate against you if you make a complaint. If you want to complain to us, send a written complaint to Acupuncture Alternatives, LLC at the address, fax, or email shown on this notice. If you prefer, advise your complaint in person, or by phone with Jim Burnis who is our HIPAA contact person.

For More Information

If you want more information about our privacy practices, call or visit Acupuncture Alternatives LLC at the address or phone number shown on this notice.

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Medical Disclaimer

The information provided on this site, such as text, graphics, images, is for informational purposes only. It is not to be construed as medical care or medical advice and is not a replacement for medical care given by physicians or trained medical personnel. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider(s) when experiencing symptoms or health problems, or before starting any new treatment.

Acupuncture Alternatives LLC is not to be held responsible for any inaccuracies, omissions, or editorial errors, or for any consequences resulting from the information provided in website articles, social media postings, e-mail news, or any other methods.